No Good Deed
by NarutoRomantic
Summary: ShikaTema. Shikamaru/Temari. It's the afternoon of the Academy entrance ceremony, and Shikadai is devastated when Shikamaru doesn't show up. After all, what could be more important than seeing his son ushered into the Academy? One-Shot. Please Review!


Shikadai was absolutely _crushed_.

For the most part, the boy looked as he always did. He wore the same bored, listless expression, tiny hands clasped behind his head as he looked up at the bright, sunny September sky. But Temari knew better.

His teal eyes were brimming with emotion, the most obvious being anger. The anger, of course, was masking something much deeper – an emotion too troublesome for the small boy to deal with right now. Disappointment. Because, should he confront that ugly emotion, he'd be reminded of what had caused it in the first place.

It wasn't often that Shikadai was angry with his father. The two were incredibly close – so close, in fact, that it made this mess all the more painful for Shikadai. His father wasn't a man that broke promises without good reason. And as far as Temari was concerned, there was no good reason for missing his only son's entrance ceremony.

"You want something to eat?" She asked hopefully. "You can have anything you want." It would probably put a considerable dent in her pocket, but if it made the boy feel better…

Shikadai shook his head, lowering his hands to his sides, "Nah. Think I just wanna head home and take a nap."

 _Or hide in your room and mope,_ Temari thought sourly. Her son might've been a lazy brat, but she could read him like an open book. "I'll make you a late dinner, then. You can have it when you get up."

He hummed in acknowledgement, but said nothing else. It hurt her to know that her child was hurting and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it, save castrate her husband when he finally _did_ show his face. And she fully intended to do just that. But that wouldn't wipe away Shikadai's heartbroken face when he looked into the crowd of parents and didn't see his Dad.

They entered the house, Shikadai kicking off his sandals and leaving them in a messy pile in the corner. Normally, Temari would've scolded him for it. But nothing about this day had been normal.

Shikadai started for the stairs, eyes downcast. Temari busied herself in the kitchen, preparing the meal she'd promised would be ready for Shikadai when he woke. He paused, watching her for a moment. She was mumbling under her breath about something he couldn't quite make out, but he assumed it was about his Dad.

If possible, she might've even been more upset than he was.

"Mom?" She jumped a bit, having expected the boy to be upstairs and halfway asleep already. Taking a second to compose herself, she dried her hands on her apron and turned toward her son, giving him a reassuring smile.

"Yes, Shikadai?" She asked.

"Would you train with me tomorrow?" Temari's brow furrowed. Shikadai _always_ trained with Shikamaru. Was this sudden change of heart because of what had happened at the entrance ceremony?

She nodded slowly, "Of course I will, Shikadai. But… wouldn't you rather have your father -,"

Shikadai frowned. "I want to train with you!" He said sharply. A little too sharply.

Realizing what he'd just done, that he'd just snapped at the parent he actually _wasn't_ mad at, he turned and quickly made his way upstairs. Racing into his room, he slammed the door roughly behind him.

"Shikadai!" Temari called after him, standing at the base of the stairs. He didn't answer, and she hadn't expected him to.

 **O/O/O/O**

"Paperwork… what a drag…" Shikamaru rubbed his neck, trying to work a particularly painful knot from the base.

While he was an excellent Hokage, Naruto was one hell of a procrastinator. And Shikamaru, while he hated to admit it, was an enabler. He accepted all of Naruto's excuses, never really cracking down on the whip until the last minute. And it was that pattern of enabling that had led to that night's predicament.

With one hour until the Academy entrance ceremony, Naruto was still swimming in paperwork. He was starting to make irrational decisions to try and plow through the work faster, having promised Bolt that he'd make it to the ceremony _in person_. Naruto knew full well that his son would never forgive him for breaking a promise of that magnitude.

But the paperwork wasn't going to just disappear into thin air, so Shikamaru had proposed an alternative. Naruto would go to the entrance ceremony, while Shikamaru finished the paperwork.

 _"_ _But, Shikadai's expecting you to be there too." Naruto scratched the back of his head, his look uncertain. "You don't think he'll notice that it's just Temari standing there in the crowd?"_

 _Shikamaru shrugged. "He probably will. But I get to spend as much time with Shikadai as I want. You rarely get to see your kids, and something like this? It's a major milestone that Bolt will remember forever. So don't blow it."_

 _Naruto still didn't seem too convinced. "You sure about this, Shikamaru? I don't want to cause any problems with you and the family." Naruto barely concealed a shiver, "Your wife can be downright scary sometimes."_

 _"_ _Everything will be fine. Don't worry about it, okay? Just go and enjoy the ceremony." Shikamaru said._

He hadn't known that Naruto was afraid of Temari (not that he was all that surprised). It was funny how those sorts of things came out.

He entered the house, toeing off his sandals by the door and noting the pair of much smaller sandals that were laying haphazardly in the corner. That was odd. Usually Temari was so anal retentive about Shikadai cleaning up his own messes. She rarely, if ever, just let them stay there for long. Something was very wrong.

"You're home late." Temari said coldly, cleaning up what was left of Shikadai's dinner. He hadn't eaten very much at all before going back to bed.

"Long night. Volunteered for paperwork duty, which is a mistake that I will not be making again." He cracked his neck again, this time relieving a bit more of the pressure.

"Sounds like you had a difficult night." She continued dispassionately. Her face was schooled into a cold mask and Shikamaru knew then that he was in for it.

He sighed. "You gonna tell me what I did, or are you gonna make me guess?"

Temari frowned, pausing just long enough to shoot him a cold glare. "You should already know."

"Troublesome woman."

He lit a cigarette, relishing in the rush of tobacco and nicotine that flooded his system. Naruto absolutely hated the smell of cigarette smoke and wouldn't let him smoke in or around the office, so he could only indulge his cravings at home. And that was only when Temari was feeling particularly benevolent and let him smoke in the house.

Tonight, she just didn't seem to care very much either way.

"Is this about the entrance ceremony?" Shikamaru asked, arms crossed over his chest and brow knitted in frustration. Because of course, the one time he tried to do something nice, it would bite him in the ass.

"Do you know how _crushed_ Shikadai was when he looked out in the crowd and realized you weren't there? _Crushed_ , Shikamaru." Temari hissed lowly. "You made your son a promise, and you let him down."

Shikamaru blew a perfect smoke ring, before Temari waved her hand in it, destroying it completely. He frowned. "I didn't go to the entrance ceremony so that Naruto could. He was behind on paperwork. Way behind. So I took it off his hands."

Temari deflated a bit. It was hard to stay mad at him when he'd done something so kind. "I'm sure Bolt was thrilled."

But Shikamaru wasn't really thinking about Bolt. He'd known that he'd broken his promise to Shikadai by not being at the entrance ceremony, but they were practically attached at the hip and had been ever since Shikadai was little. Sure, he had his friends at the Academy, but ChouChou was always off eating with Anko, and Inojin was too afraid of his mother to _not_ train…

And while Shikadai could scarf down a meal with the best of them, and was just as strong and intelligent as the other kids in his class (if not more so), he much preferred taking mid-afternoon naps with his Dad than doing anything that required real effort.

"I didn't mean to upset him." Shikamaru said after several moments of silence.

Temari sighed. "I know you didn't." She went over and placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing reassuringly. "He's up in his room, and probably still awake. Go talk to him."

He stubbed the cigarette on the corner of the ashtray, before rising and placing a kiss on his wife's cheek. "Yeah. I'll do that."

 **O/O/O/O**

Shikamaru raised his hand to knock on his son's door. He hesitated for a moment, before finally knocking three times and calling out, "Shikadai? Can I come in?"

"It's unlocked." Not really an answer, but as good as any.

He opened the door, slipping inside of the mostly dark room and making his way along the familiar path to his son's bed. His boy was curled up in a ball, pillow held tightly to his chest, his back to Shikamaru. He didn't seem to be crying, just staring blankly out the window at the moon. Shikamaru took a seat at the foot of the bed, placing a hand on his son's small leg.

"I'm sorry about the ceremony, Shikadai." He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand, trying to look anywhere but his son. Expressing his emotions so openly was difficult for him. Everything about this was difficult for him.

"It doesn't matter. Not anymore." Shikadai said distantly.

Shikamaru sighed. "Do you know where I was this afternoon?" Shikadai shook his head, but didn't turn to face his father. "I was doing mountains of paperwork so that the Hokage could come to the entrance ceremony to see Bolt."

Shikadai shifted slightly, peering at his father over his shoulder. A positive sign.

"Because I was thinking – all the time we get to spend together, just the two of us… Bolt's never had that. His father is so busy, he just sends out clones. Bolt rarely gets any time to spend with his Dad. So something like this… it was really special for them."

Shikadai did recall that Bolt had seemed a lot happier than usual. He never really thought about the Hokage's absence from Bolt's life, but realized then that it probably contributed a great deal to his feelings of loneliness and constant need for attention, no matter the cost. Could his father's actions truly have had such a great effect?

"You broke a promise." He pointed out softly. He didn't even sound angry, just tired.

"I know." Shikamaru sighed, hating that he'd hurt his son but knowing that, ultimately, he'd done the right thing. "And I can't say it'll never happen again. But what I _can_ say is that I love you, son, and I never meant for any of this to hurt you."

Shikadai yawned, rolling over and making himself comfortable with Shikamaru as a human pillow. "I love you too, Dad." He whispered, already drifting off. "And I… forgive you…"

 **O/O/O/O**

Shikamaru had only intended to stay a little while, just long enough to ensure that he wouldn't wake the boy by moving out from under him. But when Temari came by an hour or so later, to see how the two were doing, she was surprised to find Shikamaru out cold, his body awkwardly propped up against the headboard. Shikadai's tiny body was sprawled out over-top of him.

It was a sight too adorable to disturb, so she left them to it. Of course… not before she'd taken a picture.

 **O/O/O/O**

 **A/N:** Surprisingly, considering how much I love ShikaTema, this is my first attempt writing Shikamaru. Let me know how I did! Hope he wasn't too OOC *fingers crossed*. And please remember to drop a review!


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